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Two new Hillary Rodham Clinton biographies contain a series of revelations.

In "Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton," New York Times reporters Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. report on Hillary's shifting approach toward the Iraq war and lingering questions about her billing practices as an Arkansas lawyer. The book also demonstrates the then-first lady's deep involvement in working to beat back the myriad scandals that beset President Bill Clinton's administration through much of the 1990s.

In "A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton," Watergate sleuth Carl Bernstein has more personal revelations, ranging from her father's exaggerations about his past to the fact that Bill considered leaving her for another woman in the late 1980s.

But the books also contain a map of Hillaryland, in the form of what Clinton friends, enemies and observers say about her -- and in their very decision to speak to these biographers. And the books also illustrate some of the distinctive tics of the press and publishing industry that have grown up around the New York senator.

Here are some highlights.

Oddest Hillary interaction with a reporter: "'Anne, I thought you left Barbados,' Hillary cracked, letting (The Washington Post's Anne Kornblut) know that she knew where she had been vacationing, a level of detail that left Kornblut feeling intimidated," report Gerth and Van Natta.

Nice of Kenneth Starr to give her a break: In "Her Way," the former Whitewater special counsel complains of Hillary's "frosty demeanor" and tells the authors he actually took it easy on the first lady. "I could have dumped on her" in the Starr Report, he says.

Most tantalizing charge: "Her Way" reports that during the 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary "listened to a secretly recorded audiotape of a phone conversation of Clinton critics plotting their next attack. The tape contained discussions of another woman who might surface with allegations about an affair with Bill. Bill's supporters monitored frequencies used by cell phones, and the tape was made during one of those monitoring sessions." (Former Clinton aides say the anecdote is unfamiliar.)

Too much information: "If Hillary had engaged even in heavy necking before she got to Wellesley, no one said so," Bernstein reports.

Biggest advantage to Bernstein's eight-year writing process: He gets with Clinton friends and allies who later tired of speaking to the press (Arkansas chief of staff Betsey Wright) or passed away (Hillary friend Diane Blair).

Best double recantation: Wright waves off her own denial of her 1995 statement to writer David Maraniss that Bill Clinton had relied on state troopers to help procure women: "I know (Maraniss) didn't make anything up," she tells Bernstein, who says her original statement was made "under duress."

How to get your own footnote in a Carl Bernstein book: "(Clinton ally Bruce) Lindsey failed to respond to my inquiries over a period of several years."

Who really runs Capitol Hill: Clinton press secretary Philippe Reines, per an unhappy footnote in "Her Way": "The authors of this book encountered similar problems enlisting cooperation in the Senate. For example, Harry Reid, the Senate's majority leader, declined to speak to the authors about Hillary after Reines sent an e-mail to Reid's office in 2006 requesting that he not cooperate, according to a senior Senate aide."

Readers' Comments (21)

Go ahead Dems, nominate the junior senator from NY, she's the most divisive Dem running this year. Even the beloved so-called MSM will be finally forced (kicking and screaming) to delve into her past, and lo and behold, they might even broach the subject of her self-described 'experience' to be the nations chief executive - considering she's never made a single executive, chief executive, or political decision in her life in which the results were her sole responsibility. You know what I mean, she's never made the type of decision in her life that a governor or president is called upon (daily) to make. She's a disaster waiting to happen.

Like Rush Limbaugh, Hillary is a cash cow that keeps giving, everytime you have the research to pen 350 plus pages of BS you can assure yourself a million copies sold. I personally could never vote for Hillary because she is a shallow iconic figure that stands for the least in us as Americans but I could never hate her. I also think these types of books should be left for the days after she has left the scene. Should we care if Hillary was a virgin when she arrived at college? so what her father embellished, don't all dads? Her marriage has not been what the rest of think it should have been, but what is the recipe of success in other couple's relationships? She has stretched the truth many times. Well, she is a politician. Don't vote for her and don't buy these types of books. Unless it encourages you to care more for Paris.

Hillary will get"swiftboated" ....around ...let's say.......September 2008.....he-hee-hee-heeeee-he...we can't wait to see you pervert Democrats whine and throw a collective tantrum....AGAIN...in 2008......we are still gloating over 2000 & 2004...we set back your agenda 50+yrs (Roberts& Alito)..he-hee-heeee-hee......please make her your candidate....she's a wanna be Slick Willie.....she is a bad wife with grandiose baggage....she will guarantee a Republican victory.....English not our official language?.....what?.....she just hung herself trying to be SLICK.....he-he-heee-hee FRED THOMPSON=NEXT PRESIDENT

I've spent the last three years blasting our White House liar-in-chief with a nonfiction book, George Dub-ya Bush, THE PHONY FIGHTER PILOT, and two investigative websites. Now it's Hillary's turn in the barrel.

If you believe Slick Willie's flyweight understudy should not become president of the United States, visit my nonpartisan website: www.STOP-Hillary.com.

Ken Starr could have "dumped" on Hillary? Not sure what that means. But for all the complaining at the time from Hillary, Bill, talking-TV-defense lawyers, and ancestors to today's leftist bloggers, some of us did get the sense that Starr was restraining himself. The fact is there was just so much, and all of it an interconnected streaming corruption which became known as the Clinton MO. There may be a "BillClintonland" apart from the "Hillaryland", but in the end they're joined at the hip, with identical goals {except for Bill's predatory hunts of course}. All this stuff is old news, which needs to be repeated and remembered so voters will Knowingly vote for or against another round of Clintonian empowerment. These books actually paint the Clintons in the BEST possible light, short of simply lying about it all, or another book by Hill or Bill {sorry for the redundancy}.

It confirms my suspicions that hillaryland is more like bushworld than Bill's world. I know she is republican lite and she would destroy the progressive movement and Howard Dean to install a DLC croney. it is far past time to retire the clintons to the country and let new political leaders emerge. they would do a far better job. I think Hillary needs to step aside and let her rival Obama take the lead and our nomination.

Starr illegally leaked grand jury information to reporters throughout his witchunt, including to Jeff Gerth. It is unthinkable that he would have dirt on Hillary and hold back. After spending $70 million he had nothing on the Clintons. His entire M.O was "leak and smear".

It is clear Senator Clinton asked her friends not to talk to the writers. So they ended up talking to her enemies only. And by the way Gerth et al have no evidence of any taped called Hillary listened to. They are traficking in gossip, just like their claim of a 20 year pact.

Latest from the Republican National Enquirer Hotline---Hillary Clinton demands that Paris Hilton be freed from her miserable sentence of 23 days in an LA jail. Paris has been very unahappy and couldn't get an extra blanket when she asked for one. They are putting her food and feeding through a slot in the door. She's been crying the first 2 days but now has had a visit from her doctor and psychiatrist. She is doing exercises, but the time in solitary confinement is taking its toll. She is using a calling card to call her parents once a day for 15 minutes. She still has 20 days to go. As one friend pointed out, she'll be the prettiest jailbird and she'll be even skinnier when she gets out. Several well-known political analysts believe that Hillary's call to free Paris will hurt her campaign and cause her to lose both New Hampshire and Iowa. What a lovely Republican fantasy? I love Lucy,the Statue of Liberty, Mia Farrow, pumpernickel bread, chocolate ice cream, and falling into bed.....ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

The person who wrote this Politico article, Ben Smith, has lied repeatedly about Barack Obama in the past. Smith hates Democrats. All Democrats. Maybe except for Joe Lieberman. Here is a summary of all the falsehoods Ben Smith and other Politico writers have invented about Democratic candidates: http://mediamatters.org/items/...

STMART has it exactly right: WHY NOT A "EXPERIENCED" GOVERNOR FROM THE WEST? Americans elect governors to be president precisely because they have chief executive experience, Bill Clinton, as Arkansas attorney general and governor, had 14 years of executive and chief executive experience prior to running for president. His wife doesn't have 14 seconds of executive experience in either the private or public sector nor has she ever made a single political decision in her life in which the results were her sole responsibility. DEMS, do us all a favor, nominate a governor at the top of your ticket.

Well not exactly. Starr revealed that Bill Clinton lied under oath. This directly led to his impeachment (it wasn't about BJs from a chubby intern - it was about lying to federal prosecutors, kinda like Libby), Also, Starr was in fact quite lenient with Hillary Clinton who easily could have been charged with obstruction for sequestering the Madison billing records that were under subpoena for more than two years.

Other than that, Starr convicted 14 people, most of whom were associates and friends of the Clintons. They included a Governor and the Assistant US Attorney General no less. So the investigation wasn't exactly useless.

And even though she was not prosecuted, what does this whole episode say about Hillary's character and judgement, when she has so many criminals as friends and business associates? How many of your friends are in jail?

All right, I guess I have to post this stuff again ... why is no one interested in Hillary's cattle futures bribe?

"By the time she closed her trading account ten months later, she had racked up $99,541 in profits, a spectacular 10,000 per cent return on her initial investment of $1,000. Either Mrs. Clinton was a better trader than the legendary George Soros, whose best-ever annual return in thirty years of trading was 122 per cent, or she was led by an invisible hand."

"So we guess it's also up to us to indelicately mention another of those flagrantly disturbing episodes in Mrs. Clinton's career: her quick profit of nearly $100,000 on a $1,000 stake in the futures markets. The big question, still, is whether Mrs. Clinton was, as she said, just well-advised and "lucky," or whether--via the filter of the futures markets--she took a fat bribe and then coolly lied about it."

Whether Hillary gets the nomination or not is irrelevant, what is disturbing is this mindset that we always have to have a governor be elected President and they have to be Southern. Since when was this written in the Constitution that it has to be like this--nowhere. It's fine that governors have executive experience but that still doesn't qualify that they can run the country anymore than a Senator or Congressman. This Southern thing is just as absurd. Why can't the country be represented by somebody that doesn't always sound like a red neck Democrat or Republican..... Is that in the Constitution too? Perhaps this mindset will be broken in 2008.